


Burdick Manor: A Mystery Adventure Game

by Louzeyre



Category: Veronica Mars (Movie 2014), Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25142533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louzeyre/pseuds/Louzeyre
Summary: Logan, Veronica and Lilly play a board game one hot afternoon. They make the mistake of not finishing it.Years later they face the consequences...Aka a Jumanji/ Zanthura fusion with more than a pinch of Clue thrown in.
Relationships: Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie & Veronica Mars, Lilly Kane & Veronica Mars, Logan Echolls/Lilly Kane (past), Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars, Wallace Fennel & Veronica Mars
Comments: 28
Kudos: 34





	1. Do Not Begin Unless You Intend To Finish....

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea in my head for a while. I probably should have posted this as part of one of my "five things" fics, but I just couldn't help but want to give it some space and time to breath on its own. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think. Good or Bad.

2001

“A board game Logan? Really? You’d rather play a board game than see me in a bikini?” Lilly said, crossing her arms as if to further demonstrate what he’d be missing.

Logan shifted uncomfortable. The truth was he would _much_ rather see Lilly in her bikini, but he knew if Lilly took her shirt off, she’d find a way to get his shirt off too and there was no way he wanted Lilly or Veronica to see what his back looked like right now. Veronica seemed to sense Logan was uncomfortable with swimming and, God bless her, turned to Lilly.

“Come on Lilly, once Duncan get back from his Model UN thing, we’re going to be going to the movies anyway.” She reminded her friend. “Do you really want to be sitting in the theater for two hours in,” Veronica lowered her voice slightly, “A wet bathing suit.”

Veronica nodded down slightly, clearing trying to remind Lilly that she hadn’t brought underwear with her, without actually saying the words aloud in front of Logan.

Little did she know Lilly _really_ didn’t have a problem with going to the movies _without_ underwear. 

“Anyway,” Logan cut in, holding up the hand carved wooden box, “This isn’t _just_ a board game”, My dad got it as a gift from some studio hotshot.” He had gone on and on about it, in fact. “It’s a one -of-a-kind, _very_ expensive antique.” Beside him, Veronica grimaced slightly.

“Maybe we shouldn’t play it then, Logan.” Veronica said now not so sure. “We could break it or something. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble.”

Lilly let out a disappointed huff.

After all this time as Lilly’s friend Logan would have thought Veronica would have realized that saying something could get them in trouble was like waving a red flag in front of Lilly.

“Oh, come Veronica,” She said, “Live a little.” She reached over and grabbed the box out of Logan’s hand, evidently now fully on the board game bandwagon.

Lilly opened the box, revealing it to be less a _box_ than the game board, folded over itself.

She then read a truly awful poem written on the upper left portion of the board that seemed to give the directions. They basically seemed to boil down to roll the dice to move the tokens (duh), doubles get another turn, and the first person who reached the end of the game and said the name of the murder wins. Oh, and if you get to the end and say the _wrong_ name you have to go back to the start. There was something else about needing to finish the game, but whatever. Of course, the people who created the game wanted you to finish it.

“Right.” Lilly plucked up one of the wooden tokens, tilting it to show off the deep red jewel on the top “I’m red, obviously.”

She picked up another token moving it back and forth in the light.

“This one looks like it could be pink.” She said, frowning. “Or possible purple. It's hard to tell.” Lilly then looked over and offered the pink-maybe-purple jeweled token to Veronica. “What do you think?”

Veronica shrugged and grabbed the token.

“Sure. I’ll take it.”

“Great.” Lilly looked over the remaining tokens, “Now, there’s no orange.” She continued, then picked up another token, and offered it to Logan. “Will obnoxious _yellow_ do?”

Logan reached over and grabbed the token she had left in the box.

“I’ll take blue. Thanks.”

Lilly rolled her eyes and shrugged.

“Fine.” Then added almost under her breath. “I guess Donut _isn’t_ going to be joining.” She then grabbed the dice and reached over the game board, holding them out to Logan.

“You’re the youngest. You should go first.” Now Logan rolled his eyes. But he also accepted the dice.

“Wait.” Veronica said, stopping him. “Shouldn’t we have notebooks or something? To keep track of the clues.” Lilly Shrugged.

“It didn’t say anything about them.” she pointed out. Logan gave Veronica a “what can you do” look and threw the dice into the blank area of the game board where the direction had been written to roll.

To all of their shock, once the dice had landed, Logan’s token moved forward the correct spaces on its own. When it had stopped, a card popped up out of a previously unnoticed slot in the center of the game board.

Logan wasn’t startled. Really. And he absolutely didn’t pull his hand back as quickly as possible after he grabbed the card.

“Gemini Thief, that caused much grief.” He read. He paused a second, trying to make sense of it. He couldn’t. “What the heck does that mean?”

“You were the one who wanted to play,” Lilly said breezily, as if she hadn’t completely taken charge of the game, once her interest had been piqued. Not that Logan was exactly complaining. In charge Lilly was hot.

Lilly snatched up the dice, and dropped them into Veronica’s hand.

“Here. You next.”

Veronica shifted nervously, then examined the board as if trying to find a place she could throw the dice without causing any damage. Finally, she carefully tossed down the dice into the same area Logan had. Just as with Logan, her token moved on its own, and when it stopped, a card flew up out of the game board.

Despite her worry about breaking the thing, Logan noticed she didn’t show hesitation in grabbing the card. That was the thing about Veronica, Logan had noticed. She _talked_ like she didn’t like breaking the rules, but if you distracted her and made her forget she was doing something she shouldn’t be doing, her competitive streak would take over and push her straight into the thick of it.

“Noises in the walls. It's not a ghost. But murine guests, for a careless host.” She read out.

“Okay, clearly whoever wrote this game didn’t understand the concept of clues.” Lilly concluded. In spite of her remarks, she still reached over to gather up the dice for her own turn.

“Wait.” Veronica said, causing Lilly to freeze mid-reach. “Do you guys hear that?”

They all stopped then, and listened. After a second or two, Logan heard a scratching sound. Then more scratching sounds that got louder and louder. One of the electrical outlets popped outward from the wall. Followed by another. Then another.

Mice, _hundreds_ of mice came rushing out of the outlets, and flooded into the pool house rec room.

Lilly screamed. Veronica screamed. Logan might have screamed. Okay, probably screamed. The three of them _all_ went running out of the pool house, trying to stay ahead of the wave of rodents.

****

It would take weeks for exterminators to declare the pool house mouse-free.

(Aaron would blame Logan.)

By the time any of the teens would spend time in the pool house again the room would have been thoroughly cleaned and the game board tucked away, and easily forgotten.


	2. Spend some time around the grounds....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who has reviewed and kudoed.
> 
> I really hope you like the chapter.
> 
> Please let me know what you think.

2003

It wasn’t really accurate to say that Lilly had a _plan_ per se, but after she’d discovered Aaron’s hidden camera and self-made porn stash, she’d pretty much just intended to grab her stuff and run out to her car.

Before she’d even made it out the pool house, however, she had started to hear this sound. If someone had asked her, she wouldn’t have been able to say _why_ she had followed it, she just knew she _should_. The sound led her into the next room, and to the weird wooden game board that she thought she remembered from the day of the great mouse tsunami.

Ick.

The jewels on the pieces were kind of pretty though, and it definitely looked old and expensive. One of Aaron’s collectables no doubt, like the super gauche Fabergé eggs he had sitting around. Who keeps a Fabergé egg in their _pool house_? Anyway, it was something that Aaron valued and since and Aaron had just made a sex tape of them without asking her first, she figured having someone shave off some of that value was the least he was due.

First, she tried to take one of the game pieces, but when it turned out they were all really stuck to the board., she ended up grabbing the dice instead. Sure, they wouldn’t exactly be hard to replace, but she figured it would still be annoying _and_ it would mean the game was no longer in its original mint condition or whatever.

So, she took the dice. _Then_ she got out of there.

When Lilly got back home, she put the tapes in her vent and threw the dice under her bed. Then she made her way out toward the pool to do some sunbathing.

She only made as far as the living room through, before she started to feel weird. Sort of like her entire body was being sucked on and _not_ in a good way.

When she looked down at her hands, they looked stretched out, like something out of a poorly photoshopped picture, rather than real life.

_That_ was when she started to scream.

****

When the Kane’s found Lilly’s car at home but not Lilly, they assumed she must have gone out with friends.

When she wasn’t back by the next morning, they had started making calls.

By that night, Veronica’s dad had been called in a more official capacity.

Everyone assumed it must be a kidnapping.

But no ransom notes ever came, and Veronica’s dad never found Lilly.

A few weeks later, no one was looking for a kidnapper. They were looking for a body, and a murderer.

And Veronica’s dad was looking _into_ the Kanes and their alibis.


	3. Do your best to meet the guests...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, again, to everyone who commented or kudoed. I really can't say that enough. 
> 
> I tried various ideas for this next chapter. I hope you enjoy what I eventually decided on, and that each of the characters seems like they are in character. 
> 
> I don't really know that much about video games ... so if you notice something I did wrong I'd appreciate it. (And hopefully can find a way to mitigate it) 
> 
> I would really appreciate any comments or feedback you may have, in generally too!. 
> 
> Thanks.

**2005**

  
  


“Here you go.” 

  
  


Duncan felt the couch shift as Logan unceremoniously dumped some sort of wood box down next to him on the couch. 

  
  


Without any more explanation, Duncan’s _former_ former best, walked over to the TV., and began to fiddle with the XBox.

  
  


Duncan reached over and picked up the box. 

  
  


“What is it?” 

  
  


Logan grabbed both controllers and flopped down on the couch next to him. 

  
  


“Apparently it’s one of my few personal possessions that _isn’t_ reduced to charcoal.” He said, “The team cleaning up the burnt-out rubble that was my house found it.” 

  
  


Duncan was pretty sure this was the point where he was supposed to say something. To actually talk about the some of the elephants that were currently charging around the room with them. Like what really happened on the bridge that night or how Logan felt about his house burning down or pretty much anything about last summer. But, as a rule, Duncan tried to stay away from elephants. Especially when they had as much baggage attached these did. 

  
  


“Do you… Do you want to play it?” he finally asked. Logan shrugged. 

  
  


“I think I’ll stick with the Xbox, thanks.” Logan said, “But hey, maybe you could play it with Veronica. The girl does love a mystery.” 

  
  


Duncan shook his head. 

  
  


Sure, Veronica still did some stuff for her dad. And maybe a favor or two for her friends, but it wasn’t like she actually liked it. The only reason she had even started playing around at being a detective was because of Lilly. She didn’t _enjoy_ doing it. And now that Aaron was in jail, Veronica was finally able to get back to being just her normal self. 

  
  


Duncan suspected saying any of that, though, would cause at least one of the herd of elephants he was trying to avoid to charge.

  
  


“Whatever.” Duncan told him, putting the box aside. “Now, hand over the controller and prepare for an ass waxing.” 

  
  


**2010**

  
  


“You know, when I asked you to help me pack, I thought you actually, you _help me pack_ not rummage through my donations pile.” Wallace heard Veronica say from across the room.

  
  


“I know how you get when you’re in your organizational zone.” Wallace told her, as he continued to examine said pile, “I don’t want to lose a finger.” 

  
  


There was some sort of box toward the center of the poorly balanced heap that looked interesting. Wallace decided to put some of those advanced math classes he had taken to good use and carefully twisted and turned the box until it was out of the Jenga tower of stuff his best friend had set aside for good will. 

  
  


Huh.

  
  


“You’re getting rid of Mystery game?” He knew Veronica had given up being a detective, but that seemed a bit extreme, “Wouldn’t you dad at least like to play it.” 

  
  


Veronica looked over in his direction. When Wallace saw her face shift when she caught sight of what he was holding, and he knew immediately who had given her the game, and why it was in the donations pile. 

  
  


“That --- Logan gave me that.” She said quickly, then turned back to her bag and began packing with renewed determination. “I think he meant it to be some sort of peace offering to my dad.”

  
  


Veronica smashed the shirt she had just folded into her suitcase. 

  
  


“Of course, all the pieces for the board game are missing and my dad’s not really into video games, so mission really not accomplished? I kept meaning to give it back but…” 

  
  


But they had broken up. But Logan had beaten the living daylights out of her boyfriend (to defend her honor). But she had broken up with said boyfriend and didn’t want to see Logan’s reaction. But she had run away to Stanford. 

  
  


Wallace could fill in the rest well enough himself.

  
  


“Wait, _this_ is a video game?” Wallace asked her, shaking the box slightly. Who packaged a video game inside a carved wooden box? Wait, he already knew the answer: someone selling it to people like Logan Echolls who had more money than sense.

  
  


“Yep.” Veronica reached over and grabbed a pair of jeans and began aggressively folding it. 

  
  


Wallace hadn’t realized you _could_ aggressively fold something until he met Veronica. 

  
  


“You can have it, if you want.” She told him. “I doubt Logan would want it back now.”

  
  


“Are you sure?” He asked, trying to study her reaction. She seemed to realize exactly what he was doing and shot him a glare.

  
  


“I think I’ve had to solve enough mysteries courtesy of Logan Echolls for a lifetime, don’t you?” 

  
  


**2014**

  
  


“I’ve never heard of this one before.” Mac said with much more excitement that Wallace could imagine any of his old games might justify. 

  
  


They were both a little drunk.

  
  


With Sun Microsystems now well and truly dead, Mac had finally decided to leave Oracle and take a job with Kane software. 

  
  


Tonight, had been meant to be a celebration of her selling out/ moving home but between her schedule and his budget they had ended up back at his place eating take-out Luigi’s and taking a trip down virtual memory lane with the parts of his gaming collection Darrell hadn’t confiscated when he left for college. 

  
  
  


He looked over to where Mac was rifling through the binder of his old games. Unfortunately, he couldn’t actually see what she was talking about from where he was sitting, trying to hook up his equally old gaming console. Reluctantly he pushed himself up off of the floor ---something which took a bit more effort than he would have liked --- and walked over to her to see what she was talking about. 

  
  


Wallace almost laughed when he saw which game she had stumbled onto.

  
  


“That’s Logan’s.” He told her. He didn’t need to say which Logan.

  
  


“I wasn’t aware you were ever on video game sharing terms with Logan Echolls. In fact,” Mac said, grumbling a little, “if any of Veronica’s friends were on video game sharing terms with Logan Echolls it should have been me.” 

  
  


“He gave it to Veronica.” Wallace told her. 

  
  


“And she desperately wanted to pretend she didn’t remember he existed and kept it in her closet for years until she was embarrassed to return it.” Mac said.

  
  


She didn’t even bother to phrase it as a question. 

  
  


Wallace just nodded.

  
  


“I think it must have been part of some VIP promotion thing because it came in a _really_ nice box.”

  
  


“Okay.” Mac said, pushing herself up suddenly. “Now we _really_ need to play this.” She tipped a little, losing her balance and needed to reach for the side table to catch herself. 

  
  


Maybe they were a little more than a little drunk.

  
  


“Wait, why?” Wallace asked. 

  
  


“You have some sort of VIP promotional beta version of a game that was given to the former best friend of Duncan Kane and you don’t want to play it? What kind of engineer are you?” 

  
  


“Mechanical. As in, the real, working with my hands and building stuff kind. Not playing around with code.” Mac rolled her eyes at what was now well-worn joke between them. Of course, at this point teasing Mac about not being a _real_ engineer, good natured or not, felt a bit ridiculous. 

  
  


Mac might say she was just a drone for a soulless corporation she hated, but at least she still worked with computers. She still got to build things, even if it _was_ just with code.

  
  


Sometimes, Wallace had felt like his job was mostly just trying to keep hormonal teenagers from setting stuff on fire or poisoning themselves. 

  
  


Mac stumbled all the way over to the television by that point and was in the process of loading the game into the console. 

  
  


Wallace mentally shrugged and sat down next to her. 

  
  


He had to say, the graphics at the start of the game _were_ pretty cool, especially for something from almost ten years ago, but the game play seemed to be _really_ old fashioned, at least if the menu to choose their player was any indication. 

  
  


“So, there seem to be five playable characters.” Mac announced, “First is Rose Reed, the beautiful heiress with a secret.”

  
  


“Well, I’m not exactly heiress material,” Wallace said, “Do you want her?” 

  
  


“Yeah. No.” Mac said quickly, “I haven’t had the best luck with heiressness myself.” Then quickly click on the next player.

  
  


“Now, let see --- we have Violet DeWarre, former spy turned…librarian?” 

  
  


Wallace and Mac both turned towards one another and shared the same, knowing look. Mac moved on to the next avatar. 

  
  


“Navy Lieutenant Cobalt “Duck” Church. A war hero with a dark past and a dwindling trust fund.” 

  
  


“So, he’s a gigolo.” Wallace concluded.

  
  


“I’m pretty sure they don’t put gigolos in pg-13 games.” Mac told him.

  
  


“They put in murder.” Wallace pointed out. “And either way, he’s clearly the patsy.” 

  
  


“Fine. We’ll try number four.” She continued. “Amber Angelglass? She’s an expert cryptographer and linguist with ties to the black market.” 

  
  


There was a slight pause, then Wallace heard a binging noise which he assumed meant Mac had made her selection. 

  
  


He let out a what, in someone less cool, might have been considered a snort. 

  
  


“Just move on to the next one.” She told him. 

  
  


“Dr. Beryl Beech, a genius inventor on the verge of a world changing discovery, searching for an investor.” He read off. 

  
  


“Oooh.” Mac said leaning towards him. 

  
  


“Hey now.” Wallace told her. “You already have your player _Amber_ , Beryl’s mine.” He selected Beryl and heard the “bing” again.

  
  


After the bing, music started playing. 

  
  


The music was interrupted, however, by the sound of circuits frying. Wallace looked over to see arcs of green sparks coming from his machine. 

  
  


“Shit.” Mac said. She sounded scared rather than frustrated, though, and Wallace automatically turned to look at her. 

  
  


What he saw. He could describe what he saw. Not adequately. It reminded him of that TV kid in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. The one that had been dissolved and sent through the air. Only it was somehow even more messed up. 

  
  


As it began to sink in that something really weird was happening, Wallace realized he felt pretty strange himself. Like he had little pin-pricks all the way up and down his body. 

  
  


Then he looked down at himself. 

  
  


Well, shit.


	4. Take your part at the start...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, once again to everyone who has commented and kudoed. I really can't say how much it brightens my day.
> 
> I hope that you like this chapter. Any feedback would be appreciated, good or bad. 
> 
> Thank you again.

A hypnic jerk. That’s what they call the sensation of falling that sometimes happens right as you’re falling asleep.

There’s some complex scientific explanation for why it happens, but the only thing that really matters to most people is that it isn’t something to worry about and it almost always wakes you up.

Except Veronica wasn’t waking up.

She had been struggling to keep her eyes open as she finished up her reading for the next day.

Then she must have lost the struggle because suddenly she felt like she was falling.

But instead of jerking awake on top of her torts book, she just kept falling.

And falling.

And once the falling stop, she had _landed_ someplace other than on her apartment floor. 

She was dreaming. She had to be

In front of her was a Downton Abbey-esque house that would make even the most extensive McMansion “compounds” in Neptune feel inadequate.

When she looked down, she realized her location wasn’t the only thing that had changed. Gone were her comfy study sweats and slippers. They had been replaced by low, sturdy heels and the 1940s version of a power suit complete with shoulder pad and A-line skirt Although the light lavender color detracted from its “power” part of the equation in Veronica’s opinion. reaching up she felt that her hair was now longer, and curled. Perched on top of it was something that felt like the sort of hats she thought only existed in old photographs and British weddings. 

There were even seams on her stockings.

Before she could make not of anything, beyond her sudden change in wardrobe, she heard a thump behind her.

When she turned, Veronica found herself staring at Logan Echolls. He was standing in a crouch (show off) and looked as bewildered as she felt.,

He wasn’t the Logan that usually inhabited her dreams.

This iteration had lost the last of the roundness in his face and his shoulders were wider. A fact that was made all the more evident by the cut of his blue suit.

His hair was also slightly longer, parted to the side and slicked back in a way that reminded her of her Dad beloved film noirs.

“Nice job subconscious.”

“Veronica?” Logan paused his examination of their surroundings and blinking over at her. “You look… very retro?”

This wasn’t how these dreams usually went.

Before she could start moving things into their usual, more amorous direction, though, she heard two more thumps. 

This time both she and Logan turned, and Logan stepped forward to be beside her.

The move wasn’t really needed.

In front of them lying on the ground, with their limbs hopelessly entwined together were Mac and Wallace.

This _really_ wasn’t how these dreams usually went.

Both she and, somewhat to her surprise, Logan, moved forward, and began to help the pair disentangle from one another and stand up.

The process was complicated by the fact that Mac was wearing a skirt that was relatively narrow until its slightly wider swishy end around mid-calf.

The rest of the pair’s outfits were equally anachronistic, not just in comparison to the real world, but also to what both she and Logan were wearing. They seemed to have stepped out of a decade or more earlier than Veronica’s; the brownish-orange skirt was topped with a burnt orange sweater complete with a knit peter pan collar. Mac’s hair was in a shoulder length bob, even more shocking, was entirely its natural color. On top of it was a hat that looked as architectural and Veronica’s _felt_.

Wallace on the other hand was dressed in a three-piece suit, made of a rough, yellow and tan herringbone ---

“Tweed!” Wallace did not seem pleased. “I’m wearing tweed!”

“I didn’t know you knew what tweed _was_.” Mac said. “ _I_ don’t know what tweed is.”

“I’m an engineering major turned teacher,” Wallace told her. “That’s a slippery slide towards nerdy professor territory if I’m not careful. I made sure I knew _all_ the warning signs so I could get ahead of it.”

“And here I thought they no one could take the cool out of you.” Veronica said, smiling faintly. “I believe there was a pocket protector and pimp juice involved?”

Wallace looked over at her, and gave her a big smile, followed by an equally big hug.

“Veronica!” Veronica felt him tense slightly mid-hug. “You wouldn’t happen to know what’s going on, would you?”

“Well, my working theory was that I was dreaming.” She told him.

Mac reached over and pinched her.

It hurt.

Wallace, meanwhile had noticed the fourth member of their little party, and was shooting Logan a measured look.

“You don’t seem very worried.”

“Well, no one’s pinched me yet.” Logan said, complete with a shrug of calculated nonchalance.

Mac reached over and did the honors.

“Well, damn.” He said, entirely deadpanned, “I guess I’m not passed out in Dick’s guest room.”

“Can’t hold your ragger like you used to?” Veronica quipped. Here she had though she had heard he had gotten his life together.

“While I hate to disappoint by not living down to your expectations of me,” He countered. “I actually just got back from my first overseas deployment, and was kind of jet-lagged. I’ll tell Dick you liked his idea for a celebratory ragger through.”

Veronica was about to retort – really. It would have been a zinger too, but Wallace interrupted.

“Hey! I know how dangerous it is to get between you two and your banter, but --- strange clothes. Strange place. _Suddenly daylight._ ”

She must really have been off her game. She hadn’t even registered that it should still be night. Of course, Mac, Wallace and apparently Logan should also be on the other side of the country from her in California so some time elapsing for travel made sense. Or would have made sense if this was real.

“Okay, first, a pinch isn’t actually a definitive test of whether you’re not dreaming.” Veronica told them. “So as far as I’m concerned, I still think you’re all figments of my imagination.”

“Well, miss psych degree, what is a good test?” dream-Mac challenged.

Veronica shook her head. What good was it to try and explain lucid dreaming to a dream person? Then again, if dream Mac, Wallace and Logan’s body language was at all like their real counterparts, it also didn’t seem like they were going to allow the dream to progress at all without her at least trying.

Over the next few minutes Veronica went through every reality check test she could remember from her unit on Sleep and Dreams at Stanford. So did the others.

To Veronica shock, all of them seemed to confirm what Mac’s pinch had.

” So, Mac said pointedly, “I think we need a new working theory?”.

Swallowing hard, Veronica took a minute to examine their surroundings again, this time with the knowledge that this might, somehow, be real. And without her dapperly dressed ex literally dropping in.

Maybe it was time to dust off her slightly rusty detective skills, starting by asking the most obvious question.

“Right. Why don’t we start with what we all last remember?”

“Sleeping.” Logan reiterated.

“I was studying.” Veronica said. “But admittedly I may have fallen asleep too.”

“We had just started up a video game.” Mac supplied.

“The video game I got from you, actually.” Wallace chimed in, then paused a moment, and turned to point at Logan “The one you gave her,” Logan shook his head in confusion.

“I have never given Veronica a video game.” Veronica rolled her eyes.

“Sure, you did. The Murder Mystery game?” She prompted. “The one in that fancy wooden box?”

“That wasn’t a video game.” Logan said, seeming genuinely befuddled.

“Yeah, it was.” Wallace continued. “And we had just booted it up when a bunch of greenish sparks started coming out of my old Xbox. Then…”

“And then what?” Veronica asked.

“And then it felt like we were sucked into the game.” Mac finished

“ _Sucked_ into the game?” Veronica stared at her friends in disbelief.

“I said it _felt_ like we were sucked into the game. Maybe…” Mac paused, searching her mind, Veronica assumed, for a different solution.

“Maybe the machine electrocuted us or something and….” Wallace supplied.

“And what? We’re unconscious? And we’re all dreaming? _Together_?” Mac said. “Do you want me to pinch you again?”

“You know what.” Veronica said. “I was wrong. It doesn’t matter. We just need to figure out where we are now, and find a way home. I don’t have my phone on me, do any of you?”

There was a collective moment of searching for pockets. And in pockets, before everyone concluded the answer was no.

“Then I guess we’ll have to knock on the door and ask for help.” Veronica said with a grimace.

Recognizing that she was doing something that she would _definitely_ yell at the screen for if a character did it in a horror movie, but not really seeing another option, Veronica walked over and stepped up onto the front stoop door of the creepy old mansion.

Right as she reached for the bell, Logan put his hand out.

“Why don’t I go first?” Logan ventured.

“No.” Veronica told him. “They’ll be more likely to answer if the person at the door is a petite woman than, well, _you_.” She pointed out.

“Only if they don’t know you.”

Veronica gave an amused huff.

“Just, step back a little?” She said. Neither of the boys seemed particularly happy about the request, but after she gave them a bit of a glare, they complied.

Taking a deep breath, she reached up and pushed the bell.

A loud chime could be heard, barely muffled by the wood of the door.

A moment later the door opened and revealed,

“Sean Friedrich?”

He was dressed in a suit that would have been a cliché even for a butler a Halloween costume. Which, all other weirdness aside somehow seemed both incredibly apt and very out of character.

“Miss Violet DeWarre! Welcome to Burdick Manor. I’m so glad you’ve arrived safely.” In addition to his strange fashion choices, Sean had also, apparently, developed a British accent. “There is supposed to be quite a storm later tonight!”

Veronica turned around, taking in the perfectly cloudless, clear blue sky.

“Right.” She said slowly. “Look Sean, I don’t know what scam you’re pulling now, and frankly I don’t care. We need to use the phone.”

“I am your host Mr. Eugene Everard’s butler, Mr. Butler. Both I and the rest of the staff are here to serve you in whatever capacity you may require.”

“What I require Sean, is a Phone. Now.” She told him, annoyed by his attempt to speak around her question. “Unless you want your new employers to know about your former sticky finger?”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand, perhaps you could repeat your question?”

Veronica heard some noise behind her and Logan joined her at the door.

“Friedrich, just let us use the phone.”

“Navy Lieutenant Cobalt “Duck” Church! This is quite an honor. I’m so glad you’ve arrived safely.”

“Oh, come on, man,” Logan said, stepping slightly forward.

Veronica put her arm out and gave him a warning look. Logan shot her a look that almost seemed offended.

“Sean,” She said, tempering her voice to sound less angry and more chummy, “Do you know what’s going on?”

“Miss Violet DeWarre! Welcome to Burdick Manor! I’m so glad you arrived safely! I believe the particulars of tonight’s celebration were detailed in the invitation sent to you by Mr. Everard, perhaps you should read it aloud!” 

“I don’t have a letter.” Veronica ground out.

Except she did.

No sooner had she spoken the words, then she realized there was an envelope in her hand.

An envelope that had absolutely _not_ been there before.

“What the hell.” She said quietly.

“Uh, Veronica? Maybe now would be the time for a sidebar.” Mac told her.

Veronica looked at Mac, then back at Sean and finally at the magically appearing envelope.

Then stepped away from the door.

“So,” Mac said, sharing a look with Wallace.

“That Video game we were playing? It was called Burdick Manor.” Wallace finished.

“And Violet DeWarre and Lieutenant Cobalt Something were two of the playable characters.” Mac added. “Also, my character was named _Amber_.” She grabbed the edge of her sweater and held it towards Veronica for emphasis.

“So, what?” Veronica sigh, “Someone was lying in wait for years until you played the game, then kidnapped us all, dressed us all up as the players and dumped us in front of a manor house in order to force us to play murder mystery weekend with Sean?”

Mac, Wallace _and Logan_ all stared at her a minute in intense disbelief.

“Or,” Mac said carefully, “We could have been sucked into the game?” Mac offered. Like that was a more logical suggestion.

Now it was Veronica’s to stare at them in disbelief.

“No.” She told them. “Just… No. That’s... That’s just…” Veronica searched for a moment for the right descriptor, not quite willing to out and out call her best friends _insane._ “No.” She said finally

“Veronica,” Logan said gently. “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, _however improbable_ , must be the truth. --- Arthur Conan Doyle.”

“Logan, I am really not in the mood for your inspirational quotes right now.” Veronica told him crisply. “And as far as I’m concerned, _getting sucked into a video game_ is _always_ on the impossible side of things.” She glanced, just briefly, back down at the impossible letter still in her hand.

Then she shoved the letter down into one of her pockets and let out another deep, slightly shaky breath

“Look, why don’t we follow the road away from the house and try to find someone who isn’t part of ... whatever kind of crazy this is … that will help us?”

There was a collective pause as the other three all seemed to consider her suggestion. Then what amounted to a collective shrug, which transitioned into the collective movement of all four of them away from the house and towards what Veronica hoped was a gate that would lead them back to the real world, where getting sucked into a video game wasn’t considered a possible answer to anything. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if we're moving a bit slowly. I thought Veronica would need more time to believe process and believe what's happened than the characters did in the movie. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think. If there's something that stick out to you as off please let me know.
> 
> Thank you.


	5. Round and Round....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has kudoed and commented. It always makes my day.

Mac knew the idea that they had been sucked into a video game sounded crazy. But so did pretty much any other potential explanation. And if she had to choose between being stuck in video and being knocked out, dressed up and dropped off in the middle of nowhere to serve as entertainment for whoever thought making Sean Friedrich a butler was a good idea --- she’d rather believe she was in a video game.

She knew video games, at least. And video games had rules. She was pretty sure the kind of party thrown by people who could kidnap on a whim? Didn’t.

Mac also knew that Veronica wasn’t going to be satisfied with that kind of answer. She would run her own theory into the ground. Until, that is, she came across something that was so irrefutable even she could argue it away.

But it wasn’t like Mac knew how to get them _out_ of a video game anyway.

And Veronica did usually end up figuring out the right answer and saving the day (eventually), so Mac had come to the conclusion a long time ago that it was worth following along behind her until then. In this case, that meant literally following behind her as she all but marched down the road leading away from the mansion towards the gate. 

Except there was no gate.

There was a part of the fence that _looked_ like a gate, on the other side of which the road could be seen winding through the bucolic landscape, but the hinges and lock were just decoration.

Veronica played around with this decoration for a few minutes as if trying to will them into becoming what they looked like before she was forced to admit defeat.

“Okay. There has to be some way in and out of here.” Veronica announced, not sounding panicked _at all_. Really. “Why don’t we just follow the fence line. Eventually we should come to the actual gate.”

Mac looked out over the house and its grounds. It’s very expansive grounds.

Then she looked down at her shoes.

“Maybe we should split up.” She suggested. Everyone stared at her.

“Mac, I would ask if you’ve ever seen a scary movie but --- I’ve watched scary movies with you.” Wallace said. “There is no way we are splitting up.”

“Look at how big this place is.” Mac pointed out. “It will take forever to go all the way around the property. And we don’t even know if we’ll find a gate.”

“They have to get things in and out. They had to have gotten _us_ in.” Veronica pointed out. Which made perfect sense in real world logic. But not in game world logic.

“All I’m saying, is that if we split up, then we each will only have to walk half of the fence instead of the whole thing.”

“Except we don’t have cell phones.” Veronica pointed out. “Whoever found the gate would need to walk over and tell the other group where it was and then walk back with them.”

“Or I could just scale the fence here.” Logan suggested.

“What? No.” Veronica sputtered. “What good would that do us? The three of us would still be inside.”

“I could go for help. Come back for you.” He said. Veronica glared. “Or, after I make sure it’s safe, I could see if there was a way that you could all climb over.”

“No.” Veronica shook her head. “We already decided we aren’t splitting up.”

“Come one, Veronica,” Logan said gently. “You’ve seen those walls in boot camp movies? I’ve literally been trained for this.” Mac could see Veronica’s resistance waiving slightly.

“Fine.” She grumbled out, “But, only so you can to see if there’s a way for the rest of us to get out. Then you came right back.”

Mac glanced over towards Wallace. Like her he seemed to have come to the conclusion it was better to wait and just let those two work out whatever they were working out on their own without interference. For now, at least.

Logan took off his jacket and threw it over the top of the shortest part of the faux-gate. Then he took a few steps back and after a running start, scrambling quickly up the fence and over the other side.

Then he disappeared.

Literally.

Beyond the gate they could still see a dirt road rambling through picturesque countryside, but the countryside was completely Echolls free.

“Where did he go?” Veronica asked, a slight edge of panic entering her voice. She walked over to the section of fence that Logan _should_ have landed next to and pressed her face to the bars. “Logan! Logan!”

There was no answer. In fact, now that Mac thought about it, she hadn’t even heard the thump of him hitting the ground after he went over.

“I swear Logan if this is some kind of joke,” Veronica yelled through the fence “Well, you know what I’ll do to you if this is some kind of Joke.”

A moment later a disembodied hand poked through the bars of the gate.

“Logan!” Veronica said, immediately grasping it.

Because of course Veronica would know Logan’s hands on sight.

At the initial contact, the hand seemed to try to pull away, but once Veronica _held_ the hand rather than just pulling on it, this stopped and the hand instead reciprocated with a squeeze.

Because apparently Logan knew Veronica’s hand _by touch_.

After a moment, Veronica, took her hand out of Logan’s and spread out Logan’s fingers so she could touch his palm. She then started to do something with her fingers that Mac kind of recognized as the sign language alphabet.

After making four signs Veronica paused, waiting for an answer.

Logan’s disembodied hand just stayed there a second, then the palm tilted up slightly as if to say “Huh?”

“Umm, does he know sign language?” Mac asked.

They did always show military types using some kind of hand signals on T.V. but that was T.V. Plus she was pretty sure that was something completely different from actual sign language.

Veronica had apparently come to the conclusion that Logan didn't know sign language because she once again opened his palm this time tracing the letters onto it. She repeated this several times until the disembodied hand made a motion that Veronica apparently viewed as meaning he understood. The hand then made a hand gesture even Mac understood as meaning “Okay.”

Veronica let out a long breath, then turned back toward Mac and Wallace.

“I’m going over.”

“What?” Wallace said. “He just said he was okay.”

“And now we need to decide what we’re going to do next. And we can’t do that if we can’t hear him from this side.”

“And if you’re on that side, we won’t be able to hear _you.”_ Wallace pointed out. Veronica gave a slightly dismissive gesture.

“I’ll just climb to the top of the fence and look over so I can talk to him.” She told him.

Veronica did not just climb to the top of the fence and look over. Although, to be fair, Mac didn’t think she had _intentionally_ gone back on her word.

With Wallace’s help Veronica had managed to get up and stand on the top crossbar of the pseudo-gate near where Logan had gone over. Once she was up there, she had then put one of her legs over the top of the fence, supposedly for balance.

If that was the case, it hadn’t worked. Maybe it was just that Veronica had let her breaking and entering skill grow rusty at Columbia or maybe her stance really was just that precarious, but after the maneuver she had stood there a moment, wavering, then toppled down onto the Logan-side, dragging Logan’s coat down with her in the process..

“Veronica!” Wallace yelled. Mac suddenly had an image of lemmings falling off a cliff. Only it was then and the top of a fence.

Wallace was a lot more reasonable then Veronica, or at least placed a lot more trust in Veronica’s abilities then Veronica had in Logan’s and it took him several minutes to get worked up enough that Mac started to be afraid she'd have to find a way to stop him from climbing over too. Luckily, right before they reached that point, a Veronica-sized disembodied hand stuck itself through the fence and made the okay signal, followed by a thumbs up.

Unluckily the thumbs up began to gesture upwards.

“Shit. She wants us to climb over, doesn’t she?” Mac said.

As if on cue, two large Logan sized hands poked through the fence again, and laced their fingers together as if to offer a boost.

****

Getting all of them over to the other side of the fence required a lot more work, some questionable use of farm equipment and Mac hiking up her skirt so high she was pretty sure Wallace, Logan and Veronica all now owed her dinner.

The less said about it the better.

Once they _had_ all made it over, they found themselves not on a road but inside what looked like a formal English garden.

Weirder still, the fence itself, did not appear to be a gate on its garden side nor could they see the house. Instead the high iron fence appeared to back an even higher wall of shrubbery.

When Mac put her hand through the fence at Veronica’s urging, instead of hitting branches and thorns her hand went right through. Presumably appearing as a disembodied hand on the other side, just a Logan and Veronica’s had.

Way off in the distance, on the other side of the garden was a house about as large as the one they had just run away from.

So of course, that was where they headed.

Mac could admit, her shoes were a lot more comfortable than she had first thought. And the path was a lot less muddy then they should have been.

That wasn’t the only thing that seemed to be oddly in their favor.

Despite the harrowing experience of crawling over the fence, after a few shakes and a few steps, all of their clothing and hair had seemed to fall down perfectly in place again. Even Logan’s coat which, by all rights, should have been torn up by the sharp finial at the top of the fence that it had been torn off of when Veronica fell over showed no signs of damage.

As they got closer to the house, Mac started to have a sinking feeling that it looked familiar.

The back door was locked. Almost immediately after discovering this, Veronica reached up and began searching her hair --- looking for a pin of some sort Mac guessed. After a few moments, she turned towards Mac and asked.

“Do you have any hair pins?”

“I’m not sure how willing people are going to be to help us if you break into their kitchen, Veronica.” Wallace pointed out.

Mac reached up and began searching her own hair and hat. The laws of physics would suggest that both she and Veronica should have had hair pins or hat pins or _something_ holding these things onto their heads. But they weren’t. Their hats, it seemed, were being held in place with some kind of hat magic.

“I’ve got nothing.” She told Veronica, ending the discussion. Veronica huffed, clearly not happy, but put on a smile.

“Fine. We’ll just go around to the front.”

As they rounded the side of the house Mac’s sinking feeling grew deeper. Once they had turned the corner and began walking along the house’s front it was not so much a feeling as a clear idea.

It was the same façade, the same drive-way and the same porch area as the house they had just climbed away from.

Veronica was undeterred, however, and marched up to the (same) door and pushed the (same) bell. Only for Sean Friedrich to open it in his (same) suit.

“Miss Violet DeWarre! Welcome to Burdick Manor. I’m so glad you’ve arrived safely.”

For a second Mac worried that Veronica was going to punch Mr. Butler the Butler in his Sean Friedrich-y face.

Especially since Veronica had already taken on the sort of falsely relaxed stance that usually meant she was about to pounce.

Instead, she turned around and faced them.

“Alright. You know what? Let’s say you were right about the whole sucked into a video game thing.” Veronica said. “Do you have any idea how we get out?”

“Play the game.” Logan suggested. That earned him a questioning look from all three of them. “What? I watch movies too.”  
  


There was a sort of general shrugging of agreement.

Veronica let out another long breath, and she looked down at her hand, where her letter had magically reappeared. “I guess that means that I’m going to have to read this letter then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again. I know this chapter went in a bit a circle (literally) but I thought it was important to give Veronica some more time (and evidence) to allow her to get used to the idea that they may actually be inside a video game. 
> 
> I hope it was still enjoyable. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think. I would love some feedback. Good or bad.
> 
> Thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Originally this was going to be just a fusion fic with Jumanji. Then I realized that if the game can be a Jungle adventure game, a space adventure game (Zanthura) and a video game depending on what the kids playing it needed, then of course it would turn into a mystery adventure game for Veronica and her friends. 
> 
> I would really love any comments or feedback you could give. 
> 
> Thanks again.


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